stage direction

an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.

the art or technique of a stage director.

Origin of stage direction

First recorded in 1780–90

I had said all I had to say, and it seemed to me that about here the stage-direction "exit" was written in my part.

My Man Jeeves |P. G. Wodehouse
In the stage-direction the last four words are omitted Remorse.

The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge |Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines."

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet |William Shakespeare
Pope destroyed the collocation by transferring the stage-direction to a point some dozen lines later.

Shakespearean Tragedy |A. C. Bradley

The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "Tibalt under Romeos arme thrusts Mercutio in and flyes;" which some modern eds.

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet |William Shakespeare

stage direction

an instruction to an actor or director, written into the script of a play

stage direction

Part of the script of a play that tells the actors how they are to move or to speak their lines. Enter, exit, and exeunt are stage directions.